Introduction Analysis

Although this wasn’t exactly the book I had originally wanted, after starting to read the first couple pages I was immediately attached to the character and plot of the novel. The beginning of this book, The Yiddish Policemen's Union caught me by a pleasant surprise as seeing a significant event start off the novel. The author Michael Chabon immediately starts off the novel by illustrating a murder in the hotel he's been living in called Hotel Zamenhof. Without introducing any background information Chabon tries to immediately grab the reader's attention by introducing the murder of this resident. "Nine months Landsman's been flopping around at the Hotel Zamenhof without any of his fellow residents managing to get themselves murdered. Now, somebody has put a bullet in the brain of the occupant of 208, a yid who was calling himself Emanuel Lasker" (1). These are the first two sentences of the whole book. The author does not necessarily use many rhetorical devices but this is a very good strategy to instantly catch the reader’s attention and it instantly sets a mysterious and suspenseful tone. Not only is this attention-grabbing, but it immediately sets up the plot and what the rest of the book is going to be about. Usually an author will set up a situation before giving the reader a plot, but the first two sentences really grabbed my attention right away.

The rest of the introduction goes on to depict the type of character Meyer Landsman is and a little bit of background about his life. Although he seems like he is not too fond of his job, when he sees the room of this murder and the way it was set up, it took me by surprise. I got the feeling that Landsman knew something more about the murder or at least he seemed as if he was more intrigued by this scene than any others he had been involved with. Because the author sets up this introduction in such a mysterious and suspenseful way it made me curious as to the significance of this murder. I think that this murder will have a great impact on Landsman’s personal life and maybe through this crime something about himself will be revealed by the end of the novel.